Students in Financial Difficulty

[KC1996]

How do other instructors approach a situation where a student (or students) are having financial difficulties and can't afford the full tuition for training, grading fees etc?

How much wiggle room do you give students like this? Do you allow a break in tuition, grading fees etc? Or do you take a more hard-line approach and if they can't pay they can't participate? What do you do for the students who always seems to be down on their luck?

[Spartacus Maximus]

There is nothing stopping a dedicated and determined person from training whenever and wherever possible as often as possible. A student should be able to attend as many training sessions with an instructor as possible. The key is to make the most of that time.

Whatever the student's time and financial resources will allow at a given time. Sometimes these might change, but the essential principle remains: learn in the dojo, but always train on your own. Make sure to take full adavantage of the instructor's time, especially if this is not as frequent as you would like it to be.

[DWx]

How you approach this will depend on your relationship with them and the individual situation.

I do think it's nice to help out when students are struggling but I would always say you are not running a charity and shouldn't feel obliged to provide free tuition. You are providing a (non-essential) service which they choose to participate in and presumably have overheads which need to be met?

I think you have a couple of options:

1) Suspend or reduce their payments until they are able to meet them again

2) Suspend tor reduce their payments temporarily, with a plan in place so that when they are more financially stable they can reimburse you and cover the shortfall

3) Suspend or reduce their payments but they should offer payment in some other way, like cleaning the dojo every week or helping with paperwork

4) Ask that they do not train unless they can meet the fees

Personally #4 is a little harsh and you risk losing the student. #1 is very generous but there is a risk that this could cause resentment from other students and ill feeling further down the line. So I would be leaning to option #2 or #3 as it helps them out but still places value on what you are doing.

[ashworth]

As an instructor I like to offer help when students are struggling, I have often said they pay another time when they have the money, (usually like to keep it private so others students don't know) but the club does make profit, that profit is for the club therefore I'm happy to reduce certain fees where possible.

[The Pred]

This can be a very difficult situation. But I would make sure they pay something, even if its 5.00 once a week. Or perhaps you can offer to reduce the bill if they bring in a new person to sign up.

[KC1996]

It is a tough situation and the dues are already ridiculously cheap. The dojo has very low overhead so we're lucky that way.

I'm all for helping out to a certain degree. I'm wondering where, or if, to draw the line on how much to help out. Being helpful vs being taken advantage of. If a member already has their dojo dues reduced, would you also do the same for gradings and clinics for the same member?

[The Pred]

I would say if you charge for testing (some schools don't) and they are in financial trouble, then perhaps they shouldn't be allowed to test. Furthermore, perhaps tell them they can only come once a week.

[sensei8]

My first love is to teach, and in that, my first love is my students...and not money. I'll work with any student that's experiencing some financial difficulties. I've already, years ago, and so has our Hombu, eliminated all testing fees across the board, and I/we've not looked back since then.

Communication is the key. If somethings broken, and I'm not told about it, how can I try to fix it. All a student has to ever do is to speak with me behind close doors, and together, we'll work it out where all benefit.

If, for whatever the reason(s) might or might not be, I'm not spoken with, and tuition isn't being paid, then suspensions are given and upheld until the communication line is opened. And if warranted, I'll expel because the student refused to open up the communication line.

While my dojo is a business, and my students are more important to me than money, the business still needs to satisfy its accounts receivable and accounts payable. Otherwise, the doors must be closed!! That doesn't do anyone of us any good, if that happens!!

Keep the communication lines open at all times. From that, all things are workable!!

[Luther unleashed]

I used to train with my family, that’s 4 kids and my wife and myself. I couldn't afford the car payment price of training. At the time and my instructor knew that. He offered to let us pay what we could until we could pay the full amount. We offered to clean up the place after classes, and we did that for a long time. We mopped the floors every night, we cleaned bathrooms, seating area, vacuumed and even painted when needed. We also didn’t pay ANY testing fees. He was very good to us and I appreciate what he did to this day. Obviously he wasn’t about money first and it lead to me teaching today carrying on the Arts.

That is kit to say you have to do that for somebody, but I asked him how I could ever repay him one day, and he said “if you have a student in the future that is having a hard time, do it for them”! I do it from time to time and always will be open to doing it. Working with families that is.

[singularity6]

Poverty is a huge problem where I live (rural, economically stagnate.) Our master instructor has always said that all are welcome. If someone has a hard time paying our tuition (US$25/mo,) they can privately set something up with him. He says he will never turn someone away over money.